Saturday, April 12, 2008

And Here in the Okanagan...

...it's a gorgeous day! The sun is shining; the girls are out in their mini dresses; it could be summer. At least, that's how it is today; it's supposed to get chilly again this coming week. That's ok, I'm enjoying it while it's here.

So what am I doing? Baking cookies. Some way to enjoy a nice sunny day, isn't it? I don't mind, though. I haven't baked in a long time and when the urge hits, you go with it. John will be happy. (Me, I don't eat much in the way of sweets.. I'd rather sit down with a bag of potato chips or Cheetos.)

Knitting has been minimal this past week. I guess with me recuperating from the cold I had last weekend is to blame. One night, I even fell asleep on the sofa by 8:00 p.m. Yikes! I did work on Ene's scarf a little bit. I'm on Chart 3 now and just realized this morning that I'll be working that chart a total of five times. And here I thought I was about half way! Silly me!

I still haven't got that part of the pattern memorized, even though it isn't difficult. I'm very happy with how it's turning out; the alpaca is so lovely to work with.

This week, though little knitting was accomplished, my stash grew somewhat. Robbyn (her blog can be found here) dyed some KnitPicks Alpaca laceweight in a colour called Pigeon's Blood. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it? The colour, though, is incredible! Well, she decided that the yarn had my name written all over it and gifted me with it. I'm thrilled and grateful; it truly is a gorgeous colour and the picture doesn't do it justice.

I didn't do too badly in photographing the yarn, but the colour is a little deeper, darker and the blue in it really sets it off. Now, I need to find a pattern that screams for this yarn. I want the yarn and the pattern to be perfect for each other. In the meantime, I'll just keep fondling the yarn.

As well, I dropped in at the thrift store that's in the same complex as the print shop I work in. It's rare that I find any yarn that I like, but this time was different. Someone had dropped off a bunch of lace weight odds and ends, probably left over from machine knitting. Here's some of what I bought...

The rest is at work. I didn't want John to be overwhelmed by my yarn purchase. All told, I spent about $10 and probably have another basket full of odds and ends. It was all in separate bags, each marked at $1 to $1.75. In all, I think there are about eight different colours. I'm thinking of re-doing the Icelandic Shawl with a variety of colours. It could be quite effective, don't you think? (Incidentally, see the basket? I made it; it's the only basket I've ever made and I love it!)

The clock is telling me that the dough for the ginger cookies is ready to be rolled into balls and baked now, so I'm off again. Enjoy your weekend! I hope it's as nice where you are as it is here.